Just Another Summer in Gravity Falls
by Lil.Toadie
Summary: Dipper and Mabel Pines once find themselves in Gravity Falls the summer after Weirdmaggeddon and just want to have a good time with their old friends (and old enemies...?) Unfortunately, the paranormal side of the Oregon small town has a bit of a different summer planned out for them...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hello people! Yes, this is a new story, (the idea just actually popped into my head today, and I...well I love Gravity Falls with all my heart, so I just had to write it, you know?) and it's super rough, so there might be some revisions happening later with it. But I'm pretty happy with the direction I have it going in, so I hope you enjoy the first chapter of Just Another Summer in Gravity Falls! Thanks! (And don't forget to r&r, I love feedback :D)

. . .

 _Thump thump thump._

I knocked on the front door of the Mystery Shack feeling strangely…awkward.

Not that feeling awkward was a strange sensation for me or anything. Awkward was practically my middle name. Really wish it was Tyrone, though.

It just felt so weird to actually be back. Especially after the craziness that happened here last summer.

"Oh my GOSH, Dipper, it's the SHACK!" my twin sister Mabel whispered excitedly in my ear, "I already feel at home again! I wonder if our room is going to be same—I'm dying to catch up with Larry the splinter!"

My sister tended to look on the bright side of things.

"Well, we'll see…if Soos ever opens the door. Where is he?" I remarked, trying to peer through the tiny windows at the top of the door. Due to my short stature, however, I wasn't doing too great at it.

Suddenly, an eye appeared in the window, causing me to yelp and jump back.

The moldy door flew open, followed by a chorus of laughs that irritably included my sister.

"Dudes," Soos, the old handyman and now owner of the Mystery Shack, gasped, "I was waiting do that, like, all day."

"He was," Melody, Soos's girlfriend, confirmed, "He was sitting behind that door all day."

"Totally worth it," Soos added.

"Ha ha ha, very funny," I sarcastically said, stuffing my hands in my pockets.

"Soos! Melody! Ugh, it's so good to SEE you! How is the relationship going?" Mabel burst, obviously waiting to ask that question for the longest time. Even after a year, she was still obsessed with everything love- and boy- related.

"Uh, fine," Melody replied nervously, playing with her fingers. Mabel noticed this, and immediately snatched both of her hands.

"You…" Mabel gasped, "You're ENGAGED! OHMYGOSHYOU'REENGAGED!"

"Well, it was supposed to be on the down-low, ya know," Soos laughed.

"But I guess not anymore!" Melody exclaimed. "See, dude, I TOLD you people would eventually find out THAT WE ARE ENGAGED and so that we shouldn't try and hide the fact that I AM ENGAGED TO YOU!"  
Soon blushed, something I'd never seen him do before. Melody must've been bringing out the best in him.

"Well, congratulations, guys!" I said, "When's the wedding? Hopefully in the summer so we can come and not miss school, am I right?"

Mabel elbowed me. "What Dipper _means_ to say is that we're hoping it's during school so he and I can come and miss class, because those weddings are the best type of weddings!"

I glared at her, my look conveying everything I had to say.

"It's actually at the end of the summer, right before you guys leave Gravity Falls," Melody answered.

I inwardly cheered, and Mabel outwardly groaned, but then immediately got distracted by one of her thoughts. "Oooo, Melody, can I be one of your bridesmaids? Please please please PLEASE _PLEASE?"_

"Was that even a question? Of course!" Melody replied, taking Mabel into the gift shop so she can talk and work at the same time.

Now it was just Soos and me in the front room. Oh, and a dying question I'd been thinking about on the whole bus ride here.

"So, um," I started, "Do you…does Wendy still work here?"

Soos shrugged. "Nah. She started working at the new sandwich place down the road, since Melody has her old job."

"Sandwich place? Here?"

"Yup dude. They have, like, REALLY good BLTs. You should check it out."

"…Yeah, definitely," I replied, a bit disappointed for some reason. I mean, I'm _over_ Wendy. Done. That was a one-summer gig—I'm a completely different man now.

"Where is this sandwich shop, exactly?" I asked before I realized the words coming out of my mouth.

"Just right down the street. You can't miss it."

"Thanks," I replied, unconsciously moving toward the door.

"Ah no dude, not now! You just got here! C'mon, lemme show you dudes' room!"

"Isn't it the same room as before?" I inquired.

"Yeah, but—"

"SOOS HELP MY HAND IS STUCK IN THE TOILET AND I CAN'T GET IT OUT SOOS THIS IS SO GROSS WHY AM I DOING THIS SOOOOOOS!" someone cried loudly from the downstairs bathroom.

I arched an eyebrow. "Am I hallucinating, or is that who I think it is?"

"Yeah, it's Pacifica. Her therapist person wanted her to get some work 'sperience, since her family is only kinda rich now, and we had the handyman job open…" Soos shook his head, sighing. "Dawg, she doesn't know what she's doing. She's like a pigeon that's loud and poops on everything."

"SOOS I NEED HELP! NOW!" Pacifica screamed, the panic in her voice intensifying as each second went by.

Soos looked toward the bathroom, and then back to me, seeming almost guilty. "Listen dude, she's gonna start scarin' customers 'n stuff…and you know where your room is, right?"

"Yeah man, don't worry. I'll just drop off my stuff and hang—"

"SOOOOOOOOS!"

"Bye dude," Soos said quickly, and backpedaled toward the bathroom. "I'M COMIN' BIG P!"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT! I CAN STILL SUE YOU!"

I sighed, and headed up the stairs with my suitcase thumping behind me, hit by a wave of nostalgia as I realized that Soos had barely changed anything since Grunckle Stan left with Great Uncle Ford to go explore the unknown. He probably just liked it the way it was, and wanted to preserve the memory of when Stan ran the Mystery Shack.

I sniffed the air and blanched at the smell of mildew, mold, and that odd, ranchy smell that I could never put my finger on. Maybe Soos shouldn't have preserved _everything._

I finally reached the top of the stairs and looked down the hallway to see the door leading to the room that Mabel and I had shared all last summer. I sighed, finally feeling at home and in place as I walked over to the door, turned the knob, and…

"AUGHH!"

I stumbled back, shouting out in surprise for the second time that day after opening the door and seeing the outline of Bill Cipher looking right at me.

Only it wasn't Bill Cipher. It was just the light coming through stain-glass window that had a triangular figure looking oddly reminiscent of Bill. I breathed a sigh of relief. I needed to snap out of it—nothing weird was going to happen this summer. Maybe a few things, since this _is_ Gravity Falls, but not Bill-weird.

Stepping superstitiously around the Bill reflection, (you can never be too careful, especially in this town) I set down my stuff and started to unpack. Pretty soon, I'd made everything look pretty much the same as it did last year, except for the addition of the Legend of Zeldo figures I'd picked up on my year back in Piedmont, as I'd recently become really into that videogame series.

I plopped down on my bed, suddenly bored. I found myself wishing for one of Ford's journals to look through, as I hadn't read all of them.

Then I remembered Bill had burned them up at Weirdmaggedon.

 _Bill ruins everything,_ I thought resentfully, _Even though he's trapped in some stone statue and really isn't doing much, he still sucks._

I sighed. What to do, what to do, what to—

"Wendy!" I suddenly said aloud. "I should totally go visit Wendy! I mean, I don't think anyone will really miss me while I'm gone, since everyone is pretty busy with their stuff…"

I silently commended myself for thinking my way out of boredom in such a quick manner, and then headed downstairs to get the golf cart and see Wendy.


	2. Chapter 2

I was about halfway down the steps when I realized that I needed keys to use the golf cart. Which should've been in Melody's possession, since she had Wendy's job and Wendy always had the keys. Even when she possibly shouldn't have.

I was going to have to be really discrete about this.

I sauntered into the gift shop, where Mabel was talking to Melody excitedly, who was politely listening as she checked stuff out for tourists. Waddles had finally left Mabel and was busy participating in his favorite activity—lying in the window's sunlight and sleeping.

"Hey guys," I greeted coolly, propping my elbow on a nearby bookshelf.

"Dipper, I told you you sound and look like a baby lamb that just was born and is figuring out how to make sounds when you try to be cool," Mabel replied without even looking at me.

My elbow slipped, and I temporarily lost my balance, almost crashing into a rack of postcards that I briefly read to say _Question Mark or Man Baby?_ with Soos on the front only wearing a pear of underpants and a question mark costume.

Mabel giggled. "Who wants a lamby lamby lamby?"

"What's that mean?" Melody inquired.

"Nothing!" I butted in quickly before Mabel could answer, feeling my face turn red with embarrassment. The plan already seemed like it was failing.

"Are you done being weird now? Wendy isn't here anymore—you know that, right?" Mabel laughed.

I sighed. "Yup." Sometimes you just had to roll with Mabel's stuff.

"Whatchyou need, Dipper?" Melody asked, handing a buying customer their gift bag.

"Oh, just wanted to know where the golf cart keys were. You know, just for information's sake. Also, just in case Mabel gets abducted by gnomes again," I replied smoothly, trying to seem as inconspicuous as possible.

"Oh _really?"_ Mabel asked jokingly before Melody could answer, "Just for information's sake, eh? Not going anywhere?"

Dang it, Mabel knows me too well. "Nope. Maybe later, though, you know, once we get settled."

"Wait, Mabel, you got abducted by gnomes?" Melody asked, "That's a joke, right?"

"Where are you gonna go?" Mabel interrogated, ignoring Melody's question.

"Just…town. To see stuff."

"Can I come with?"

My heart froze. "No," I said immediately.

I'm not positively sure why I didn't want my twin sister to come along with me to see Wendy—after all, she's friends with both of us. Still, though…I didn't want her to come. Just in case she messed…something up.

"Wait, why not?" Mabel laughed, "What, is there something you're hiding from me? Already?"

"Uh, no."

"Why can't I come with you then?"

"And why are we not entertaining the discussion of Mabel getting kidnapped by gnomes again? I really am…very, very confused on that front," Melody chimed in.

I panicked a little, but an idea bulb shined in my brain, giving me the perfect lie. "Because, I'll just be…going to see stuff. Really not that much. Plus, I might be heading to the woods and taking notes on the stuff in there, just like last summer."

She groaned. "UGHHH WHYYY? You are SO BORING when you take notes, it's like you turn into an ultra-geek or something."

I sighed. "Yup, that's me. Ultra-geek."

"Aw no, I didn't…I didn't mean it like that, Dipper, you know I was just kiddin' around…In fact, I'll even be willing to sit through your boring, scientific studying thing you do," Mabel said, smiling at me.

NO!

"No!" I repeated.

Mabel frowned. "Dipper, do you not want me to come or something? Is that it?"

I tried to come up with a good answer to this question, but I just ended up stuttering some word that sounded like "blubber."

Mabel rolled her eyes and slipped off the counter she was sitting at. "Alright," she said, giving up, strangely enough, "Fine. I know when I'm not wanted. I'll just be upstairs…unpacking…" She started slowly thumping up the stairs backwards with her backpack, as she was facing Melody and me. I gave her a suspicious look, as she never surrendered that easily, but her nerve didn't break; she just kept on climbing the stairs slowly, a bump being heard at each step she went up.

Hm.

I turned back toward Melody, who looked slightly dazed at the conversation that had happened. "So can I have the golf cart keys now?" I inquired as sweetly as possible.

She blinked. "Uh, no way dude. That thing's pretty beat up, and it's not safe for you guys to ride around in."

I threw up my hands, exasperated. "Why didn't you tell me that in the first place?"

She shrugged. "Kinda interesting where that conversation went. By the way, what's all the talk about the gnome thing again? I feel like I'm being left out on something…"

"Oh, just a, um, inside joke from last summer. Nothing important," I replied. The later Melody had to worry about the strange and sometimes malevolent anomalies of Gravity Falls, the better. "Oh, and I'm going to go take a walk real quick, if that's okay," I also added, trying to just get out the door.

"Oh yeah. Walk till you drop, my dude," Melody answered, still looking kind of confused but more at ease, and then turned to realize that a whole line of customers had accumulated while she was talking to us.

I heard Melody profusely apologizing for the wait as I opened the door and breathed in the fresh air, mentally preparing my feet to walk. It couldn't be that far of a hike to the shop, could it?

I scanned the road, seeing that it split—one direction headed toward the town, and the other away from it. A normal person would assume that a sandwich shop wanting a lot more business would build the place near the town, but Gravity Falls was not a place full of normal people. They could've easily simultaneously had a (possibly supernatural) brain fart and decided to build the joint as far as they possibly could away from the town while still being considered a Gravity Falls address.

I started heading down the road in the direction going away from the town (because actual logic never seemed to apply here) when I felt someone's hands suddenly press on my shoulders.

"BOO!" I heard loud in clear and my ear and, for the third time in the twenty-or-so minutes I had officially been in Gravity Falls, I jumped up and screamed in surprise.

I whipped around and saw, to my dismay and slight relief, my twin sister.

"Wow, Dipper, you need to calm down!" Mabel laughed uncontrollably, "You might blow a fuse or something!"

"That doesn't even make any sense," I muttered, recovering from my shock.

"Ah, shut up, bro-bro!" Mabel joked, punching my arm.

"Aren't you supposed to be unpacking?"

"Yyyyyyesss…" Mabel replied slowly, "But I knew you were going to be out here at some point, trying to sneak off somewhere without me, so I decided to watch out the window until I saw you, climb out that window, scale down the house with my AMAZING climbing skills, and scare you." She grinned. "And it all worked out just the way I thought it would!"

"Except for the window part," I said, looking up at the shack and seeing the Bill-like window to be broken, "How were even able to break that without me noticing?"

She pulled out her grappling hook from her sweater pocket. "GRAPPLING HOOK!"

"Aaand that also doesn't make sense."

"So, where are you really headed off to?" Mabel asked, changing the subject.

I sniffed. "To town, just like I said."

"Town is that way," Mabel said, smirking as she points down the other direction of the road.

"Oh yeah…" I answer slowly, "Right." I didn't feel that dismayed, as it was a 50-50 chance of me going the right way.

I did, however, feel dismayed that Mabel was coming with me.

"Town, here we come!" Mabel cheered, skipping ahead of me, "And Dipper, whenever you want to tell me where you really wanted to go is fine!"

I simply rolled my eyes and sighed defeatedly. I guessed I wouldn't be seeing Wendy today.

Town, here we come.


End file.
